Battling with Wheldon at Motegi

Tony Kanaan outsmarted his competitors by conserving as much fuel as possible while still running at the front and claimed his eighth career IndyCar victory in Saturday's running of the Indy Japan 300. The win moved Kanaan into second place in the IndyCar Series driver championship, three points out of the lead.

Starting third, Kanaan took a cautious approach to the race while always running in the top five. While conserving fuel, Kanaan was consistently the last driver to make pit stops during green-flag racing. The strategy ultimately paid off for Kanaan as he made his final pit stop on lap 191 of 200. Only taking on a few gallons of fuel, he was able to make it back out of the pits before second-place driver Dan Wheldon, who pitted only a few laps prior to Kanaan, could get in front of the Team 7-Eleven car. Those extra few laps gained Kanaan seconds in the pits by needing to take less fuel than Wheldon.

Dario Franchitti ran amid the leaders throughout the Indy Japan 300 and piloted the #27 machine to his first podium finish of the year. After three races, he stands tied for fifth in the IndyCar Series driver championship, only 27 points behind the leader. Danica Patrick started fourth, but fought handling problems on Saturday and finished 11th. Marco Andretti suffered an accident on lap 134 and was classified in 16th.

Tony Kanaan
"I'm very happy and it feels good to bring the Team 7-Eleven car to victory lane because Dan was really, really strong. It was fun to have a battle with a friend. It s great to fight clean the way we did throughout the entire race. We passed each other with no problems at all. The crew did a great job today and I'm happy for everyone at Andretti Green Racing."

Eric Cowdin, Kanaan Race Engineer
"This is a great win for Andretti Green Racing. TK drove a great race and the guys in the pits gave him flawless stops each time. We were getting reasonably good fuel mileage compared to the other guys so we were going the longest on fuel among the front runners. We thought Dan (Wheldon) had short fueled so we thought he d have to stop before us. Once Dan stopped, it was a matter of TK pushing the Team 7-Eleven car to get enough of a gap that we could stop and take less fuel so TK spent less time sitting in the pits compared to Dan."

Dario Franchitti
"Today started off pretty well for us. We moved up quickly. Then we made a small mistake on the first stop, but we made our way back through the field and were running in third. The car was really fast. I was really happy with the way the Canadian Club car was working today. At the end, the Canadian Club crew took a gamble on fuel. We thought our only real chance of winning was to take that gamble on fuel strategy. It was almost an impossible miles per gallon number to make. At the end of the day, the result was still the same with a third place finish. We had to take the gamble to try to get the win. I thought we had as good a car as TK and Dan. I think I could have hung with them, but I don t think I could have caught up with them."

John Anderson, Franchitti Race Strategist
"It was an awesome day. The fuel strategy worked out for us. We set a goal for fuel that was virtually unattainable, but we were so close. Every driver wants to race and not against fuel mileage. It was a great morale boost for the whole team getting a first and third."

Danica Patrick
"I had a fast car and it wasn't fast in the race. It just wasn't handling right. I had so much understeer and couldn't run with anybody. I was okay by myself. But, when you don t start from the pole, you have to pass people and I couldn't pass people. We just never seemed to get it right. The last stint seemed to be where we got it the best. Then we went into a fuel mileage race and we had to pit with a lap or two to go. Nothing really seemed to come together for us. It was a good weekend. Even at the end of the race, the Motorola car was never out of the top four in speed."

Kim Green, Patrick Race Strategist
"We gave Danica a pretty tough race car to drive and she did a very good job bringing it home. We had way too much understeer in the car for the track conditions. We made a lot of changes during the race and it put us into a difficult position to win the race. Towards the end of the race, we needed to make fuel mileage without stopping and it made us slow down. It was a really tough day, but I am proud that she brought the Motorola car home and I think we are getting better and better with every event. We were looking for a very good result today and just didn't have the car to get the job done."

Marco Andretti
"We were struggling with both ends of the NYSE car today but I was still happy. I was just trying to hang on to the finish and I just got into the marbles and the car just took off. I had a huge understeer so I turned into it, got out of the throttle and then the front hooked and it overcorrected into the wall. The inside retaining wall was the bigger hit for me. I m going to be sore in the morning but I'll be alright."

Eddie Jones, Andretti Race Engineer
"It's kind of a shame the way the day ended but I think a lot of promise came out of the day for the NYSE team. Marco had a very, very strong first stint having started 10th and working his way up to fourth at one point. The second stint wasn't as good but I think we were still in the hunt for a top-five finish which would have been nice."

E.A.
Source Andretti Green Racing